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I wished he had at least come up with a scheme that involved me and Fox staying in New York. I had deadlines coming up for several projects, both legal and not so legal. I hated missing deadlines. If we were on the road, and I was watching our backs while pretending this guy was watching me, there was no way I’d be able to accomplish my business goals. I was going to have to push the deadlines out.
I really hoped Fox wouldn’t piss me off as badly as he had before, but based on the information in the file Xavier had sent, he was going to do exactly that, even if he still looked like a gorgeous barbarian. I despised a lack of structure, and I hated working with anyone who failed to calculate each of their moves, but I would deal with it. I would rein him in. I’d done it before.
3
FOX
The information from Xavier told me to go to the Swinburne as soon as I landed in New York. Mr. Fontaine would meet me in the lobby. He currently had two guards with him, but they would be leaving once I was ready to take over.
An executive suite had been reserved for us, and I would have my own bedroom, but Darren-Who-Needed-a-Dick-in-His-Ass would be right there in the same suite. This was a perfect setup.
No fraternizing with clients. X had reminded me of that in his layout of the plan as if he had read my mind, but he didn’t need to know what we got up to as long as I did my job?
How good of a bodyguard will you be if you’re distracted while fucking Mr. Suited Hottie?
I’d manage. I’d gone straight from fucking a man to killing an enemy before, and I was sure I could do it again.
There was a car waiting for me at baggage claim just as X had promised. I knew he didn’t actually have magical powers—or at least I reassured myself by believing that—but he always managed to have everything work like clockwork, no matter where anyone was. He had people in every city to do his bidding.
How nice would that be? Not that I had it bad. X paid me well, and I was luckier than a lot of the guys I had served with. Way luckier. For starters, I was alive.
I reviewed Darren’s file one more time as I was driven to the hotel. I guessed correctly. He was nearly as wealthy as X’s family. He’d grown up in the same kind of privileged Boston world, and he currently ran a huge conglomerate based out of Manhattan. Apparently, he was even involved with the day-to-day management rather than having turned it over to someone else. What else was he involved in, though, that was what I was unsure of. Xavier had told me that not all his business ventures were legal, but I’d also discovered Darren did occasional work for the CIA. Like X, he was walking the line between criminal and good guy, and I needed to be very careful trusting anything he told me.
When I saw Darren across the Swinburne lobby, I had to force myself to keep moving. I wanted to stop and stare. He’d gotten even hotter since I’d seen him before, or maybe it was just the suit. While I’d seen plenty of pictures of him in power suits—I’d only looked him up online for professional reasons. I wasn’t stalking him or anything—I’d met him in a situation that required us to blend in that night, so he’d been dressed all in black.
Most people were intimidated by my size, and they sensed the violence I was capable of, but not Darren. He coolly met my gaze, and his expression told me he wasn’t impressed. He knew I wasn’t a threat since I’d been sent by X, but there was more to his nonchalance than that. He was trying too hard, and I was going to find out why. I had very few details about what he was involved in, and it was always the details you didn’t know that could get you killed.
“Gentlemen.” Darren looked from one of his guards to the other. “You can leave now.”
“Identification,” one of them barked.
“Do you honestly think I wouldn’t recognize him?” Darren asked. “He’s a bit distinctive.”
I grinned. “Damn right.”
He raised a brow at my flirtatious tone. “That’s not necessary. Follow me to the suite.”
“Do you have a key for me?” I asked.
“We’ll discuss everything when we’re upstairs.”
“Listen, if I’m going to protect you, then—”
He glared at me, and I stopped talking. No one could do that to me, not even X or my commanding officers.
As Darren held my gaze, a shiver ran through me. His eyes seemed to see deeper into me than they should. I hoped he wasn’t reading my mind because all I could think about was how I wanted to shove him up against the wall, rip his clothes off, and find out how he sounded when I drove inside him.
